Loeb crash ends Dakar win hopes

FRENCH rally star Sébastien Loeb has seen his hopes of winning his first Dakar Rally smashed after a spectacular crash that broke the gearbox and ripped a wheel off his Peugeot.

The nine-times World Rally champion and his co-driver Daniel Elena were unhurt in the accident between Salta and Belen in Argentina at the eighth stage of the race, which Loeb had been leading.

Loeb told reporters that they were just 10km from the finish and racing along a dried riverbed when they hit a hidden dip and flipped the car several times.

He said: “It’s finished for the overall victory.”

The event is due to end this Saturday and his crash, which delayed him by more than an hour as he and Daniel Elena repaired the car, handed the lead to his Peugeot teammate, Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel (who has already won the Dakar 11 times – six on a Yamaha motorbike and five in Mitsubishi cars).

While no one was hurt in Loeb’s crash, the Dakar is dangerous and in its opening days a 63-year-old spectator was hit by a car driven by another French driver, Lionel Baud.

Sports magazine L’Equipe had this photo of Loeb and Elena working on their car

In all 62 people have been killed at the Dakar since it began in 1979, including drivers, motorcyclists and a five-year-old girl who was run over by a service lorry. In 1986 five people including the rally organiser Thierry Sabine were killed in a helicopter crash during a sandstorm.

While the original race ran from Paris to Dakar in Senegal it was moved to South America in 2008 after terror threats cancelled the race in 2008.

To read more about the Dakar Rally, and how limbless athlete Philippe Croizon is preparing to take part next year, get the January 2016 edition of the Connexion, available at newsagents across France. Use www.findthepressinFrance.com to find your nearest stockist – or click here to download a pdf version now for €3.80.